'NEW REPUBLIC' DOESN'T GET IT RIGHT

By: Bill Gloede E&P's Editor Takes Issue With 'Herald' Coverage



The New Republic, which might be described as the trade magazine
of the practicing Washington liberal, last week took a couple of swipes
at things journalistic that made for some good reading, but reflected
the blissful ignorance of those who spend too much of life in
intellectual pursuit of a verdant utopia in which all are equal, except
for those who decide who's equal and what that utopia is. First, the
magazine condemned Washington Post media critic Howie Kurtz,
ostensibly for writing too much, working too hard, and paying too much
attention to detail. So much for that.


The more troubling story concerns The Miami Herald and its
coverage of the Eli?n Gonz?lez affair. The piece, by Ryan Lizza, alleges
that the Herald blew its chance to make it back into the big time
(read Pulitzer contention).



The Herald once was one of the fastest-growing, most prestigious
newspapers in America. But that was in the days when southern Florida
was a mostly white enclave of snowbirds, retirees, and the occasional
native. The demographics changed radically, and after the Mariel
boatlift, the city's population began a shift that now makes Cuban
Americans a majority. For nearly 20 years, the Herald has been
trying to come to terms with this demographic reality. In the late 1980s
and early '90s, the paper learned the hard way that the good old-

fashioned doctrinaire liberalism that its pages reflected was not going
over well in the Cuban community. Circulation plummeted, and leaders of
the more right-leaning Cuban groups actively trashed the paper.



Lizza's piece contends that the Herald blatantly pandered to the
Cuban-American community in its Eli?n coverage and on its editorial
page. And that it got scooped by a local alternative weekly, the
Miami New Times, and by national papers such as The New York
Times and The Washington Post. Among these scoops were the
facts that two of Eli?n's Miami cousins had lengthy criminal records and
that L?zaro Gonz?lez and his brother each had been convicted twice for
driving under the influence of alcohol.



Of the Herald, Lizza writes, 'Its dysfunctional relationship with
the Cuban-American community ... has led it to try to embody Miami
rather than provide the city with honest, fearless coverage of the
news.' A lot depends on what Lizza means by 'honest, fearless coverage
of the news.' If he means covering all angles, representing all views
and reporting the news, he's right. But then that would presuppose the
views of the city would be included and thus embodied.



The Herald covered the hell out of the story, including rather
damning revelations of the medical history of Marisleysis Gonz?lez, who
was among those closest to the boy while he was staying with the Miami
relatives. Nevertheless, E&P Editor at Large Mark Fitzgerald
spent some time in Miami this past winter, and he found that the
Herald was regaining credibility in the Cuban-American community
with its Eli?n coverage. This, ordinarily, would be taken for good news.
But, in this context, it can be perverted to support Lizza's contention
of pandering.



Except for this fact: The role of a newspaper in society is to inform;
it is not to teach. Indeed, Lizza's accusation that the Herald
was trying to embody the city of Miami is actually a compliment. To
ignore or dismiss the passions and the views of the Cuban-American
community as so much right-wing propaganda is not journalism.



The latest addendum to the Audit Bureau of Circulations Fas-Fax report
just came in this week, and in it the Herald reports minor
circulation declines on weekdays and slightly larger losses on Sunday.
But El Nuevo Herald, its Spanish-language paper, is up nearly as
much as the Herald is down. The combined circulation of both rose
slightly to 443,566. The numbers are thus inconclusive. My bet is that
they'll rise as new readership habits are built and trust is restored
between the paper and the Cuban-American community.



The Herald may have blown its chance at a Pulitzer, but a
newspaper that wins prizes but loses readers has won nothing at all.


As for The New Republic, I applaud its efforts to embody its
readers. All 94,552 of them.